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The beast that is Google News picked up at least one new category “e3_2005″ at /games_toaster/e3_2005/, this looks to be causing the most redirects.

The most notable other site which has linked to our archive is the Inquirer, who kindly picked up our news article on ‘Streaming music over Live may breach laws‘.
This article was however published last May; we list the date of
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When half of the US film industry is on the other side of the world,
the games industry invades Los Angeles for their own version of the
Cannes Film Festival, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3.
According to the organizers, over 70,000 people attended this year’s
expo.

What’s coming?
Monday started the week off
with a bang; Sony Computer Entertainment’s pre-E3 press conference
was always expected to reveal the new PlayStation console, what was
delivered just wasn’t expected. Graphics, planned specifications, and
claimed performance for the PS3 overshadowed Microsoft’s Xbox 360,
and Nintendo’s Revolution, as the talk-of-the-show for the remainder
of the week. Although deep scepticism clouded many minds, it was mostly
of those who had not seen the PS3 footage.

At the event, Sony showed in-game videos of near modern film CGI,
apparently recorded from PS3-like architecture. Two were highlighted as
running in real time, one of which was a version of EA’s ‘Fight
Night’, where the impact of a punch on one boxer’s face showed
ripples through his face, as well as showing detailed facial
expressions, such as fear and rage.

Other eyebrow raisers were ‘Eyedentify’ – using Eyetoy to put
the player into the game; ‘MotorStorm’ – crazy car and bike race
through a mud filled track; ‘Formula 1′, and ‘The Getaway’
(screen test) – both just looking stunning, F1 with the addition of
stunning crashes, and ‘KillZone’ – with such an amount of detail,
cries of ‘render’ and ‘fake’ can still be heard on internet
forums. Although later in the week there was somewhat impressive 360
games running on the show floor, and behind close doors, the 360 is at
this point outclassed by the PS3.

On the matter of the PS3 videos, while also referring to the running
Xbox 360 games at E3 (on development kits), Michel Cassius, Senior
Director Xbox Platform Marketing in Europe said, “it’s not
about fancy technical demos that we could have done years ago, we can
do that, we can (do) technical demos. That’s no problem. We can do
nice videos — anybody can do that”, adding that “Not everyone can
have games, real stuff, happening”.

But it wasn’t just at the cores of the consoles where the PS3
topped the 360, it boasts connectivity to seven wireless controllers
out-of-the-box using Bluetooth to 360’s four, and support for up to
two high definition televisions to 360’s one (but how many people
have even one HDTV?).

Behind closed doors at the EA stand, the company was again showing
some of the most mind-denting next generation games, at least
graphically speaking. This time is was Xbox 360 titles, besides a
‘Need for Speed’ game, all were sports titles. The next generation
part? From the blades of grass in the Tiger Woods game, to the detail
of stadiums, clothing, players’ faces, and in some cases the detail
of the audience.

Nintendo released their own unexpected surprise, saying that their
entire back catalogue would be made available for download on their
sleek Revolution console, the prototype shown was not much larger then
three CD cases, however the lack of specifications posed the question
were Nintendo really in the ‘next generation’ race.

This generation
Whatever about the next
generation, ‘Black’ was one of the games that showed there is still
much life in the current systems. The PS2 and Xbox first person
shooter, by the now EA-owned developer Criterion, looks set to
translate their Burnout formula to the shooter genre. It is set for
release in February 2006.

Besides the Revolution, and their minuscule redesigned GBA, Nintendo
looks to have a repeat of the Pokémon craze on their hands with
Nintendog for their handheld DS system. In all practicalities, it’s
an advance version of Tamagotchi where the player looks after their
virtual pet, and just another use for the DS’s touch screen (petting
virtual dogs).

The Movies, Lionhead’s slightly the Sims-look-alike simulator, is
turning out to be quite complex. From hiring actors, dealing with their
problems (weight, relationships, addictions), building studio lots, to
actually making a film, and saving it. Having a hit or not, depends on
originality, profits, current events and popular culture of the day –
the in-game timeline goes from the 1920s to the present year.

Irish Presence
The Irish presence was for the
most part contained in the private meeting rooms of the Kentia hall,
hidden away under the main South Hall. Havok had their own rooms, while
Enterprise Ireland housed DemonWare, Nephin Games, and Starcave
Studios. DemonWare replaced their GDC limo with an open-top bus
rambling around the outskirts of the LA Conference Centre.

Thursday night saw Sony Computer Entertainment Ireland hosting their
‘Irish Dinner’ at a restaurant on Sunset Boulevard for the second
year running. The event moved from last year’s packed (cramped)
one-long-table affair, to just across and down the strip to a more
spacious venue for an even greater crowd, again a mixture of
competitors, publishers, developers, middleware providers, retailers,
distributors, and journalists — from Microsoft, and EA, to Gamestop,
Smyths, Xtra-vision, to the Star and the Evening Herald.

Havok, as well as having over 50 games on the show floor using their
technology including ‘Age of Empires III’, ‘Perfect Dark Zero’,
‘Destroy all Humans’, and ‘Rainbow Six: Lockdown’, the middleware
company confirmed their support for the PS3, stating they will optimize
their products for the new console. In a release at the start of E3,
Jeff Yates of Havok said, “We realize that game developers are facing
an enormous challenge to keep up with player expectations, while trying
to manage the transition to next generation multi-core game platforms.
Havok products reduce the risk and costs game developers are facing, by
offering production-tested, cross-platform solutions that free up the
creative talents of game developers, while taking advantage of the
unique power of new game systems”.

Nephin Games’ Alan Duggan told us that for them GDC was about
publishers and distributors, while E3 had a lot more to do with
licensing of brands, “some distribution partners, but primarily the
focus has been on brand owners”. “We’ve had a brilliant week”.
“We’re combining two hot topics at the moment, which is mobile
gaming and mobile marketing”, Duggan said, the mixture is “putting
us in a sweet spot at the moment”. On their future games, “With out
giving too much away”, after their recent Kickboxing game more
fighting games are lined up, along with a racing game.

Keith Killilea of the Galway-based Star Cave Studios was – as he was
at GDC – busy with publisher meetings, “We’ve pretty much talked to
every publisher,” Killilea said, sounding somewhat exhausted – it was
Friday and the first warning to leave the conference centre had sounded
over the intercom. Star Cave recently acquired three indie studios,
Staridia in Brazil, Cellien in the US, and Single Cell in Australia,
all three of the studios were at E3 with Starcave. The company has kept
most of the staff, and currently have two first person shooters in
development, ‘Illumina’ and ‘Terra: Formations’ both using the Torque
game engine. Formations will feature RTS elements.

With 12 employees currently on the payroll, they plan to expand to
20/25 in the next few months. “Most of the new crew coming on board
will be going to Galway”, explained Killilea, “there’s a lot of
Irish guys and girls abroad” who want to move back to Ireland. “A
year ago Star Cave Studios was only a dream”, he said, while on the
subject of games development in Ireland he ambitiously states, “We’re
going to be no. 1″.

On the Irish games industry and government support, Killilea said
that Enterprise Ireland “are doing some great things, but we still
need for the government to allow Enterprise Ireland to help us out
more”.

Star Cave’s flagship game is titled ‘the 14 Tribes’ and is
based on the mythical Ireland of the folklore character Cuchulainn. As
an action-adventure game for PC and Xbox, it should include leprechauns
in some form or another, “it’s not based in Galway, but it includes
the 14 tribes of Galway”.

Closing time at 4pm on Friday hits in a strange way. A mixture of
sadness as they start to role the carpet off the floor, relief that the
madness is over for another year, the dread of going headlong into LA
rush-hour traffic (even for those who weren’t driving), and the
anticipation of a year’s release of games, and at least one console
launch. If E3 2004 was ‘the year of the sequels’ then E3 2005 was
‘the year of the next generation consoles.’

Author’s Bio: Cian Ginty is the editor of the Irish computer games website Games Toaster and former editor of Gamire.com. He can be contacted at cian.ginty@gamestoaster.com.

The streamed music could come directly from the senders digital
music player or PC, it would be heard by other 360 Live players, but
would not be saved on the receiver’s consoles. At the demo Games Toaster was assured this would not breach any copyright or broadcast law, because the music would not be saved.

However, when we contacted the Irish Music Rights Organisation
(IMRO), while stressing his comments were not a legal opinion, Brendan
Griffin Director of Finance Broadcast Licensing at the IRMO told
us “My initial reaction is yes”, and unlike Microsoft stance at E3
saying it just like playing music to your friends, the IRMO added
“playing music over the net between individuals is a public
performance of the work and usage would have to be licensed. It would
not be like playing music in your home”.

“Now who picks up the tab for this streaming is another matter
altogether — It would be probably be the content provider” Griffin
commented, before once more stressing “again this is not a legal
opinion”. And whether the content provider is Microsoft or the users
who would possible make copyrighted music available is a most likely
also another matter.    

In reply, Orla Sheridan, Home and Entertainments Division Sales
Manager Microsoft Ireland said, “We are currently soliciting legal
advice from specific markets, but are confident that no royalties would
be due in the Irish market”.

Live could possibly be seen as the music-streaming-equivalent of web
torrents, not providing the content, but a means of distribution. Even
if royalties organisation, such as the IMRO, ignored Live at first, if
Microsoft was to grow the format to their ambitious targets could the
music industry afford to ignore the issue

Their article ‘Xbox 360 fails to convince in LA‘
goes into territory most games journalists and publications — even
professionals — would never dare to venture into, in what is seen as
a heavily PR-controlled media sector.

In at least some hardcore gaming circles in Ireland and the UK,
Eurogamer are highly respected and trusted, their sister business
orientated site GamesIndustry.biz have similar respect within the games
industry worldwide.

The article mainly centers on Microsoft comments such as “gateway to
gaming Zen”, and “beyond real”, and tries to knock MS’s plans to hugely
expand the Xbox’s users base. Eurogamer’s stance to a growing
trying-to-be-cool image coming from the Xbox team isn’t that different
from the reaction of gamers to the 360’s MTV launch program, as evident
on this thread on boards.ie.

The artical prompted a writer for an Xbox-only website to state on a
online industry forum that it was the “most bias, and unprofessional
article I have ever read on a site” of such a size, saying that “It’s
unbelievable… and that’s not from an Xbox site perspective, that’s
just plain down shoddy and unprofessional journalism”.

Meanwhile, GamesIndustry.biz’s approach to the same issue is quite simply ‘Xbox 360 is outgunned and outclassed by Sony’s PS3‘, with Rob Fahey, the editor of
the site, saying “I don’t want to beat on Microsoft too hard, because
ultimately there are still quite a few Xbox 360 games I’m looking
forward to; but it’s hard not to feel that suddenly, Microsoft’s hip
lingo and celebrity endorsements seem to ring very hollow:. but Sony
seemed to feel that its new console spoke for itself. It didn’t need
celebrity endorsements, or senior executives trying to be “down with
the kids” – thank god..”

The 12cm disk drive will be a slot, not a tray, and a
“self-contained attachment” will allow for the use of DVD films and
other content. With 512mb flash memory, and a SD memory card port for
storage. Built-in Wi-Fi will allow for online and DS connectivity.

Controllers — like the 360 and PS3 — will be wireless, and the
console will host two USB 2.0 ports. The publisher is claiming the
controllers will be somewhat ground-breaking,
but did not elaborate on such.

Square-Enix is, according to Nintendo, working on a “WiFi game” of
Final Fantasy for the new console, with Metroid 3 and Nintendo’s other
’stars’ also lined up for the Revolution.

Although they made it clear this
is not the GBA’s successor, the announcement was made early this morning at
their yearly pre-E3 press conference at the Hollywood and Highland
center on Hollywood Boulevard.

The third GBA revamp, the Game Boy Micro, will see the handheld
console shrink to 4″ wide, 2″ tall, and 0.7 thick, according to the company
weighting around the same as 80 paper clips, or 2.8 ounces. Sporting a backlit
2″ screen, it’s virtually the same insides.

Further to the main reveling
on the 360 early last Friday morning, at the pre-E3 Xbox event it was
confirmed that the console will be backward compatible, and will launch
at the same time in Europe, North American, and Japan, although it’s
still sometime before the end of the year.

Cian Ginty, Los Angeles, CA. Just
hours ago Sony revealed their upcoming PlayStation 3 console at their
pre-E3 press conference outside LA at the Sony Pictures Studios in
Culver City. On the outside the console comes in three colours, white,
silver, and black, it’s has convex sides – the opposite of Microsoft’s
concaved Xbox 360.

The PS3 is set to launch in spring 2006, although we have no confirmed European date at this moment.

Game screen shots running on the PS3 cell-based system can be found here, while photographs of the launch press conference are here, and images of the console here.

Games which were on
show include Eyedentify (SCEJ), Devil May Cry 4 (Capcom),MotorStorm
(Evolution Studio), KillZone (Guerrilla)l, Gundam (Bandai), WarHawk
(Incognito), I-8 (Insomniac), NioH (Koei), Formula 1 (LiverPool
Studio), Tekken (Namco), Heavenly Sword (Ninja Theory), Vision GT
(Polyphony Digital Inc), Fifth Phantom Saga (Sega), Getaway {Screen
Test} (Team Soho), and Killing Day (Ubisoft).

The cell processor
was touted as a mini-supercomputer which for the first time brings the
graphics seen in modern film CGI to real-time game play.  Sony
claims the PS3 will be twice as quick as Microsoft’s Xbox 360 which
will launch before Christmas.

The console will be
backward compatible, and – as known for some time – the new Blu-ray
disk format will be use; the drive will also be able to read most CD
formats since CD-ROM.

Up to seven
controllers can connect to one console vie the Bluetooth wireless
standard. And the console can connect to a PSP vie WiFi. It’ll have
six USB (2.0) ports, four at the front and two to the rear, and will
also feature Memory Stick and CompactFlash slots. Full system specs are
here.

“SCEI has
continuously brought innovation to the world of computer entertainment,
such as real-time 3D computer graphics on PlayStation and the world’s
first 128 bit processor Emotion Engine (EE) for PlayStation 2″ said
Ken Kutaragi, President and CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc,
“Empowered by the Cell processor with super computer like
performance, a new age of PlayStation 3 is about to begin. 
Together with content creators from all over the world, SCEI will
accelerate the arrival of a new era in computer entertainment.”

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